Motivational Speaker

Glenda Watson Hyatt shares her
experiences living with cerebral palsy to
motivate and inspire others to think about
how they perceive their own situation and
their own world around them. She does all
this by typing with only her left thumb!

Sometimes we, bloggers, break free from scheduled posts and have silly fun with memes â€“ posts that spread throughout the blogosphere. Today, I am excited to participate in â€œThe Next Big Thing: Authors Tagging Authors!"

I was kindly tagged by Wendy Naarup, author of Wake Up! Traveling from Good Enough to Great. As I wrote in my Amazon review, :Wake Up! is Wendy’s incredible story of overcoming adversity and becoming the happy, successful person she was meant to be. I cried, laughed and cheered. If you are living on auto-pilot, grab your Kleenex and be prepared to be awakened.â€œ

Iâ€™m happy to keep this going by answering the following questions about my book Iâ€™ll Do It Myself – available for half price on the Amazon Kindle until Tuesday morning – and then tagging five more authors to do the same.

What is the working title of your book? My book title is Iâ€™ll Do It Myself, which reflects my independent nature. Iâ€™ve recently added the subtitle â€œCerebral Palsy Canâ€™t Stop Meâ€ to the Kindle edition to give my book a slightly better chance of being found amidst the millions of books available on Amazon.

Where did the idea come from for the book? I dreamt of writing this book, my autobiography, since I was around the age of ten. Egotistical? Perhaps. I saw it more as part of my legacy, as my way of passing on the lessons Iâ€™ve learned in hopes of making someone elseâ€™s life a little easier, as my way of showing that having cerebral palsy is not a death sentence, but rather a life sentence.

What genre does your book fall under? My book is an autobiography, a memoir, for those who are looking for an inspiring read.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Definitely Julia Roberts! Her bubbly energy and love for fun is perfect.

Now, I am pleased to tag the following five authors who I am privileged to call friends:

In an earlier post, I shared how authors can create lists on Amazon to increase their bookâ€™s exposure and, in theory, to increase their Amazon Best Sellers Ranking.

This list-creating fun isnâ€™t limited to only Amazon authors. Amazon readers (i.e., anyone with an Amazon account) can also partake in the fun.

Perhaps you have a list of favourite inspirational books. Or the ten books youâ€™d want if ever stranded on a desert island. Or the most useful entrepreneurial books. Or the books every teacher/doctor/professional should read about <insert disability or issue>. Or whatever. Iâ€™m sure you get the idea. Andâ€¦you donâ€™t need to have purchased the book from Amazon; it only needs to be available on Amazon.

Go wild and see how many lists you can create! (Aim for 10 books or more per list.)

(By no means is this a comprehensive list of all of the books written by my friends. Please take no offence if I have missed your book. Please let me know, in the comments below, your title on Amazon and Iâ€™ll be sure to add it to the list.)

What lists can you come up with? (Tip: If you have a book on Amazon, be sure to include it on your list, near the bottom. This creates an internal link to your book page, which Amazon likes.)

Have fun with it and feel free to share the link to your list(s) in a comment below.

During Michelle Vandepas’ Amazon Bootcamp, which I highly recommend for Amazon authors trying to increase their Amazon Best Sellers Rank, she shared behind-the-scene ways to increase our booksâ€™ exposure on Amazon. One such way is to create lists (through Listmania) and to include our book at the bottom of the list, creating an internal link to our book page, which Amazon likes.

Feel free to share your recommendations for books in the comment section below. Iâ€™d love to compile a second binder full of inspiring and powerful women living with disabilities, all kinds of disabilities.

Feel free to use these tags or other ones you deem suitable. I still need to research which tags are most desirable for this particular book. I welcome any suggestions you may have.

3. Write a Review

The last step, while the book is still fresh in your mind, is to write a honest review (without trashing the book). This does not need to be a lengthy review, although Amazon does require a minimum of 20 words.

If you can mention a tag or two in your review, while still sounding authentic, sweet!

Even though writing a review requires more effort than liking a book, Amazon loves reviews and this is key to being a raving reader. Twenty reviews or more is the goal for any author.

Like, Tag and Reviewâ€¦yep, it really is that easy. And, the authors will love you for it!

My response: What a great question, Karen! I had to give this one some thought before the answer struck, and then it was so obvious.

One of my reasons for writing the book was to help people, but what I didn’t realize until the book had been released to the world was how powerful sharing one’s story can be.

Although my story might be vaguely familiar to another’s, say, for example My Left Foot by Christy Brown, my perspective and lessons learned are what make my story unique; that is what connects, touches or inspires someone else in ways I could not have imagine.

Even though I do not consider my story to be spectacular or extraordinary, the act of sharing my story and impacting others is where the power and magic of writing the book lies.

Now it is your turn…if you have read I’ll Do It Myself and now have a question, ask away in the comment section below.